Royal Dutch/Shell cut its oil reserves for the fourth time this year on Monday as a booking scandal that has wiped more than a fifth from the oil giant's reserves rumbled on.
But the world's third largest oil firm said it hoped the latest restatement had now drawn a line under the debacle.
The Anglo-Dutch group said it was slicing 4.47 billion barrels of oil equivalent from its 2002 reserves, up from a figure of 4.35 billion in April, with the additional cut coming after Shell removed certain Canadian assets.
The recounts have cost three top executives their jobs, lost Shell its cherished "AAA" top-grade credit rating and shaken investor confidence.
"We're not planning or expecting to make any further changes," Malcolm Brinded, head of Shell's exploration and production division, told reporters.
Its shares, which have recovered since their slump in January, held steady at 393-1/4 pence in London and 40.73 euros in Amsterdam.
Shell's latest cut would cause 2003 production to fall by nine million barrels of oil equivalent, and would result in a reserve replacement ratio of 63 percent.
A ratio below 100 percent means an oil firm is not finding enough new oil to offset the amount of oil it is pumping out. Rival BP's latest reported ratio was 158 percent.
Shell had previously said the 2003 reserves replacement ratio would be around 60 percent.
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